The standard QWERTY keyboard arrangement of letters is well known in the art. In accordance with standard QWERTY design, one key is used for each letter of the alphabet, as well as separate keys for numbers and other punctuation marks. In the use of such keyboards, the fingers are moved from individual key to individual key. When using a touch type system, the keys in the center row, or “home row,” are considered to be home positions for the fingers, such as the letters J. F which are the home positions for the right and left index fingers, respectively. In the use of this type of prior art keyboard, each finger moves among various keys to access different letters during typing. Stated another way, a single key does not provide for multi-letter input, such as two inputs for two different letters from a single key.
It is also known in the prior art to provide single keys with a plurality of functions. The plurality of functions may be two, three, or even more. The plurality of functions may represent different letters which are outputted when a single key is pressed in different locations. In the prior art of this type, it is still required that there be more than eight keys to provide functions for the keyboard when using a standard QWERTY arrangement; meaning that at least some fingers must still move to different keys to access all the letters. Keyboards with a fewer number of keys and a greater number of characters per key are known, but these keyboards do not use the standard QWERTY layout and require the operator to learn an entirely different system of typing.
Still further, in the prior art, not all multi-function key designs provide for prevention of sending an incorrect signal when a key is pressed improperly. This may occur if a key is pressed improperly and there is closure of two sets of electrical contacts which send a computer device a signal that two letters have been struck simultaneously. Such simultaneous key strikes are possible in some of the known prior art, and should be avoided.
In the prior art, many keyboard footprints are of such a large size, that they are not useable for small computer devices (PDAs, smart displays, pocket translators, etc.). Therefore, a small footprint is desirable in order to provide for utility with small portable devices.
In prior art, there, are full QWERTY keyboards that are essentially “shrunk” to a smaller or miniature size to fit on portable devices; however, the inter-key spacing and overall size of these keyboards are too small to allow touch typing with all eight fingers, and the user is forced to type using the thumbs or only one or two fingers at a time.